Chapter Summaries

He Pingsheng returned after being trapped in a Lesser Spirit World and learned how his friends and family had fared, including that Wang Dun had ascended. Wang Dun left him a trace of aura that might help open another world, and Jinku pointed him toward Ethereal Mountain to seek a passage.

• He Pingsheng reunited with Luo Bingyao, who told him that Wang Dun had rescued He Tianya and killed a Phoenix Race Unbound Immortal before ascending to the Immortal Realm.
• Luo Bingyao told He Pingsheng that Hu Chen’s true body had been killed while trying to rescue He Tianya, though Hu Chen was not completely dead, and that He Tianya was safe in the wood clone’s Lesser Spirit World.
• He Pingsheng learned that Wang Dun had left him a sealed jade box containing a jade slip and a black bottle.
• He Pingsheng listened to Wang Dun’s message, which explained that the bottle held a trace of Fifty-Fifty Talisman aura still connected to the Great Order Wisdom King and might help open the Lesser Spirit World.
• He Pingsheng asked Jinku how to open a passage to another world, and Jinku suggested that he try Ethereal Mountain.

He Pingsheng planned to investigate the Phoenix Race and seek revenge while weighing the danger posed by their Unbound Immortals. The Phoenix Emperor learned that He Pingsheng had returned and that four Phoenix Race elders were dead.

• He Pingsheng discussed Ethereal Mountain with Jinku and decided to learn more about the Phoenix Race before choosing how to take revenge.
• He Pingsheng set out with Luo Bingyao to assess the Phoenix Race’s strength and determine which Unbound Immortal had survived.
• The Phoenix Emperor recovered from his injuries and told the Seventh Elder that he planned to ascend and leave the Phoenix Race in his care.
• A messenger reported that the sealed Golden Suffering Immortal Ruins had opened and that He Pingsheng and nine Witch Race Demon Emperors had survived.
• A female Elder reported that Feng Wanxi, the Thirteenth Elder, and two other Phoenix Race Demon Emperors had died, and the Phoenix Emperor realized He Pingsheng had returned.

The Phoenix Emperor tried to rally the Phoenix Race and seek the Dragon Race’s help, but fled alone when the Spacetime Golden Banner sealed the clan. His attempt to ascend failed, and He Pingsheng found him on the Mysterious Ice Continent and struck him with a poison thorn.

• The Phoenix Emperor ordered the Second Patriarch alerted, the clan’s defensive formations activated, and Luo Bingyao’s avatar released, then set out to visit the Dragon Race.
• The Phoenix Emperor discovered that the Spacetime Golden Banner had sealed the Phoenix Race’s void, disguised himself, and escaped to the Mysterious Ice Continent.
• The Phoenix Emperor swallowed an Immortal Ascension Pill, but no heavenly lightning came, leaving him unable to attempt ascension again for decades.
• He Pingsheng appeared and sealed the surrounding void with the Spacetime Golden Banner.
• He Pingsheng briefly froze the Phoenix Emperor with Temporal Paralysis, then sent a poison thorn through his body.

He Pingsheng killed the Phoenix Emperor and captured his soul, then learned the Phoenix patriarch who had hunted him was already dead. Gu Miaochen arrived and proposed an alliance against the Phoenix Race, warning that its defenses and the Dragon Race’s Unbound Immortals made a solo attack impossible.

• The poisoned Phoenix Emperor admitted responsibility for his past crimes and asked He Pingsheng to spare the Phoenix Race’s weaker cultivators, and He Pingsheng agreed before capturing his escaping soul.
• The Phoenix Emperor revealed that the Phoenix patriarch had hunted He Pingsheng and that Wang Dun had killed the other enemy He Pingsheng had wanted to ask about.
• Gu Miaochen arrived with another Witch Race member, introduced herself, and offered to support the Human Race if He Pingsheng joined forces with the Witch Race to destroy the Phoenix Race.
• He Pingsheng admitted he might break his promise to the Phoenix Emperor and imprisoned the Phoenix Emperor’s soul so it could witness the Phoenix Race’s fate.
• Gu Miaochen warned He Pingsheng that the Phoenix Race had a powerful grand array and that the Dragon Race would intervene with its two Unbound Immortals.

He Pingsheng agreed to cooperate with Gu Miaochen against the Dragon Race and Phoenix Race, and she asked him to refine Earth Mother Blood Pills for the Witch Race. The chapter ended with He Pingsheng protesting his reputation as a womanizer, followed by an author’s note promising to make up the short chapter.

• He Pingsheng agreed to join forces with Gu Miaochen, who offered to keep the Dragon Race from reinforcing the Phoenix Race while he targeted Phoenix cultivators.
• Gu Miaochen revealed that the Witch Race had surrounded the Undying Volcano and intended to destroy the Phoenix Race.
• Gu Miaochen asked He Pingsheng to refine Earth Mother Blood Pills, and he offered to make twelve supreme-grade pills from her single set of ingredients.
• Gu Miaochen asked for all twelve pills so she could fight Unbound Immortals, and offered to bear He Pingsheng’s children in return.
• He Pingsheng rejected her offer and protested that he was not lustful despite what people said about him.

He Pingsheng refined supreme-grade Earth Mother Blood Pills for Gu Miaochen, restoring her strength so they could confront the Phoenix Race. They arrived at the Undying Volcano and found the Phoenix Race still trapped beneath the Witch Race’s array.

• He Pingsheng returned to Heavenly Weft Emperor City and studied the Earth Mother Blood Pill formula inside the Fleeting Moment Time Formation.
• He Pingsheng refined forty-eight supreme-grade Earth Mother Blood Pills and returned twelve of them to Gu Miaochen.
• Gu Miaochen took a pill, replenished her origin power, and prepared to attack the Phoenix Race with He Pingsheng.
• He Pingsheng and Gu Miaochen arrived at the Undying Volcano, where nine Witch Emperors guarded the Phoenix Race beneath a golden grand array.
• He Pingsheng saw Luo Bingyao guarding the Spacetime Golden Banner, which prevented the Phoenix Race from escaping.

Ao Cheng initially promised Feng Xian that the Dragon Race would help the Phoenix Race fight He Pingsheng, but changed course when Gu Miaochen revealed that she had recovered the Witch God's Golden Body. He then offered He Pingsheng a deal to keep the Dragon Race out of the conflict.

• Ao Cheng reassured Feng Xian that the Dragon Race would help the Phoenix Race defeat He Pingsheng, while Feng Xian worried that their forces were too weak.
• He Pingsheng and Gu Miaochen arrived at the Undying Volcano, and Feng Xian and Ao Cheng went out to confront them.
• Feng Xian attacked Gu Miaochen as Ao Cheng blocked He Pingsheng, but Gu Miaochen manifested the Witch God's Golden Body and fought Feng Xian evenly.
• Seeing Gu Miaochen's restored power, Ao Cheng abandoned the Dragon Race's alliance with the Phoenix Race and tried to make a deal with He Pingsheng.
• Ao Cheng offered for the Dragon Race to withdraw to the Malice Sea, cede its Mysterious Ice Continent territory to the Human Race, and give He Pingsheng its Immortal Artifact.

He Pingsheng negotiated the Dragon Race's retreat and learned that Ting Tong had entered nirvana after helping He Tianya escape from the Phoenix Race. With Liu Molin's guidance, He Pingsheng weakened the Phoenix Race's defensive formation until its Demon Emperors offered to surrender.

• Gu Miaochen drove Feng Xian into retreat while Ao Cheng stayed out of their fight, and He Pingsheng secured the Dragon Race's promise to remain in the Malice Sea in exchange for one stream of Innate True Water.
• Luo Bingyao brought He Pingsheng the Spacetime Golden Banner, and he sent her to fetch Liu Molin to help break the Phoenix Race's formation.
• He Tianya reunited with He Pingsheng and told him that Ting Tong had entered nirvana to save him, leaving a Phoenix Egg sealed beneath the Undying Volcano.
• Liu Molin identified the formation's weak point at the Kan position and advised He Pingsheng to use a water-ice divine ability.
• He Pingsheng struck the formation twice with Nine Heavens Ice Dragon, leaving it near collapse, and a Phoenix Race Demon Emperor came out to offer surrender.

He Pingsheng rejected the Phoenix Race’s surrender unless its sixteen Mahayana Emperor Realm cultivators died, then joined the Witch Emperors in destroying the Grand Array and killing them. He captured the Phoenix Emperor’s soul, which warned that the Phoenix Race would seek revenge in the Immortal Realm and that its survivors lived beyond the Undying Volcano.

• He Pingsheng demanded that all sixteen Phoenix Race Demon Emperors die in exchange for sparing disciples below the Body Integration Realm, but the Phoenix Race strengthened its formation instead of accepting.
• He Pingsheng sent He Tianya, Luo Bingyao, and Liu Molin away, then joined forces with the nine Witch Emperors to break the Grand Array.
• Three Phoenix Race Demon Emperors self-detonated, but He Pingsheng escaped unharmed through the Primordial Purple Gold Staff’s Magical Treasure Space.
• He Pingsheng and the Witch Emperors attacked the Phoenix Race, killing all sixteen Mahayana Emperor Realm cultivators while the Witch Emperors slaughtered and devoured other Phoenixes.
• He Pingsheng took the Phoenix Emperor’s soul and dismissed its accusations, while the Phoenix Emperor warned that the Phoenix Race would retaliate in the Immortal Realm and could not be fully exterminated at the Undying Volcano.

He Pingsheng and the Witch Race annihilated the Phoenix Race at the Undying Volcano, while Luo Bingyao helped destroy the fleeing phoenixes. After learning that Ting Tong’s Phoenix Egg would hatch without her memories, He Pingsheng ordered Huo Ming and Feng Wu to guard the volcano and make all new phoenixes servants of the Human Race.

• He Pingsheng trapped the fleeing Phoenix Race in a poisonous wooden cage and called on the Witch Race and Luo Bingyao to finish the slaughter.
• The Phoenix Race was wiped out, and He Pingsheng devoured the Phoenix Emperor’s soul as Huo Ming mourned among the ruins.
• He Pingsheng ordered Huo Ming to collect the Phoenix Race’s Spatial Rings, and Huo Ming gathered hundreds of millions of them.
• Huo Ming explained that phoenixes reborn from their eggs had no memories of their former lives, including Ting Tong.
• He Pingsheng appointed Huo Ming and Feng Wu as patriarchs of the Phoenix Race and ordered them to tame all future phoenixes as Human Race servants and mounts.
• Huo Ming told He Pingsheng that the Phoenix Race’s treasury lay deep inside the Undying Volcano and offered to take him there.

He Pingsheng had Liu Molin unlock the Phoenix Race’s treasury and claimed its resources for the Human Race, while considering how to reunite with his family trapped in a Lesser Spirit World and save Zhou Qingmei. Ao Cheng arrived with the Dragon Race’s third-grade immortal artifact, the Bronze Mask.

• He Pingsheng brought Liu Molin to the Phoenix treasury, where Liu Molin began unraveling its four eighth-grade defensive formations.
• He Pingsheng gave He Tianya a supreme-grade Great Creation Pill and discussed possible ways to reach his family in the Lesser Spirit World and rescue Zhou Qingmei.
• Two days later, Liu Molin opened the treasury, and He Pingsheng assigned Luo Bingyao and He Tianya to inventory its contents while claiming the alchemy ingredients.
• He Pingsheng declared that the Undying Volcano would become the Human Race’s cultivation center and appointed Luo Bingyao to govern the Nirvana Emperor Domain.
• Ao Cheng presented He Pingsheng with the Dragon Race’s third-grade immortal artifact, the Bronze Mask.

He Pingsheng accepted a bronze Immortal Artifact and netherworld heavy water from Ao Cheng in exchange for the Dragon Race withdrawing from the Five Directions Continent, then prepared to convene an assembly of its Demon Emperors. After failing to refine the mask, he heard Jinku offer to try saving Zhou Qingmei’s soul in the future.

• He Pingsheng examined the bronze mask and learned from Ao Cheng that the Dragon Race had never been able to refine it.
• Ao Cheng gave He Pingsheng netherworld heavy water and swore a Heavenly Dao Oath that the Dragon Race would remain in the Malice Sea and avoid the Five Directions Continent’s affairs.
• He Pingsheng announced that he would convene the Five Directions Assembly at the Undying Volcano in ten days, and Ao Cheng agreed to attend.
• He Pingsheng spent several days trying to refine the bronze mask but failed, and Jinku explained that its Immortal Realm rules might require Immortal Spirit Power.
• Jinku asked He Pingsheng to spare his disciples and grand-disciples, then offered to try using the Six Paths Soul-Stealing Art to save Zhou Qingmei’s soul after his curse power was exhausted.

He Pingsheng agreed to let Jinku cultivate the Six Paths Soul-Stealing Art and attempt to retrieve Zhou Qingmei from the Underworld, while accepting responsibility for Jinku's karmic burden. As Demon Emperors and the Qilin Tribe gathered to help rebuild the Undying Volcano before the Five Directions Assembly, He Pingsheng received the complete set of Azure Sea Tidal Thunder Pearls and discovered the Phoenix treasury held all the materials needed for Eight-Treasure Purple Ginseng Wine.

• He Pingsheng agreed to Jinku's conditions for attempting to retrieve Zhou Qingmei from the Underworld and handed over the jade slip containing the Six Paths Soul-Stealing Art.
• Demon Emperor Vajra arrived early and used spiritwood to help rebuild the Undying Volcano as more Demon Emperors joined the effort.
• Azure Qilin and six Mahayana Emperor Realm qilin thanked He Pingsheng, secured their tribe's continued rule over the Thunderwaste Continent, and promised to improve the Human Race's standing there.
• An elder of the Qilin Tribe gave He Pingsheng the remaining three Azure Sea Tidal Thunder Pearls, completing his set of four.
• Luo Bingyao and He Tianya arrived with materials inventoried from the Phoenix treasury, and He Pingsheng found that all the ingredients for Eight-Treasure Purple Ginseng Wine were available.

He Pingsheng refined Eight-Treasure Purple Ginseng Wine and negotiated with Gu Miaochen to spare the Golden Suffering Tribe while her Witch Race pursued revenge against the Dragon Race. He then addressed a gathering of the Five Directions Continent’s Mahayana Demon Emperors and gave each attendee a bottle of the wine.

• He Pingsheng enhanced the ingredients for Eight-Treasure Purple Ginseng Wine and refined many high-grade batches in his Fleeting Moment Time Formation.
• Gu Miaochen told He Pingsheng that the Phoenix Race’s Second Patriarch had escaped and that the Witch Race would continue its revenge against the Dragon Race and Golden Suffering Tribe.
• He Pingsheng asked Gu Miaochen to spare the Golden Suffering Tribe and gave her twelve supreme-grade Earth Mother Blood Pills in exchange.
• Gu Miaochen agreed to leave the Golden Suffering Tribe alone, and He Pingsheng kept the tribe safe because he needed Patriarch Jinku’s help.
• He Pingsheng greeted the gathered Mahayana Demon Emperors and had his disciples distribute a bottle of Eight-Treasure Purple Ginseng Wine to each person.

He Pingsheng rewarded the Demon Emperors with precious spirit liquid, promised to leave their domains untouched, and demanded that they stop oppressing the Human Race. After most of them departed, he thanked Zhu Zhengyan for saving his family and confronted Jin Buhuan over the Golden Suffering Tribe’s deal with the Phoenix Race.

• He Pingsheng revealed that each bottle held supreme-grade eighth-grade spirit liquid that could restore a Mahayana Emperor Realm cultivator’s dantian and add five thousand years to their lifespan.
• He Pingsheng promised not to interfere with the Demon Emperors’ domains or bully other races, then demanded that no race or Emperor Domain oppress or blockade the Human Race.
• Demon Emperor Vajra, Zhu Zhengyan, and other Demon Emperors pledged to issue decrees against discrimination and oppression of the Human Race.
• He Pingsheng thanked Zhu Zhengyan for passing along information that saved his wife and children, and promised to help him if needed.
• Jin Buhuan knelt and begged He Pingsheng to spare the Golden Suffering Tribe, claiming the Phoenix Race had forced them into their past actions.

He Pingsheng secured Jin Buhuan’s pledge to let the Human Race govern the Western Extremity Continent and learned how Bing Xuan had retrieved his son’s soul from the Underworld. He planned to use that knowledge to resurrect Zhou Qingmei and open the entrance to the Lesser Spirit World.

• He Pingsheng warned Jin Buhuan that the Witch Race had spared the Golden Suffering Tribe only because of his intervention, and Jin Buhuan pledged the tribe’s loyalty and the Western Extremity Continent to Human rule.
• He Pingsheng named his son He Tianya to govern the continent and promised to help the Golden Suffering Tribe remove its Heavenly Dao shackles if it served him well.
• He Pingsheng asked Bing Xuan about retrieving his son’s soul, and Bing Xuan explained how he had entered the Underworld through the Nine Hells Abyss and described its soul prisons and ghost wardens.
• Bing Xuan revealed that rescuing his son had burdened him with karmic consequences and cost him ten thousand years of lifespan, and He Pingsheng gave him a supreme-grade Karmic Purification Pill.
• He Pingsheng decided to prepare for Zhou Qingmei’s resurrection and to open the entrance to the Lesser Spirit World.

Three hundred years after He Pingsheng began cultivating at the volcanic crater, Jinku’s curse had finally disappeared. He Pingsheng and Jinku remained trapped in a wary stalemate because neither trusted the other enough to separate.

• Three Golden Core cultivators searched the ruins of Lone Pine Mountain for treasure and found a golden barrier surrounding the crater.
• The cultivators tried to seize a purplish-red pearl, but He Pingsheng appeared in its place and his Divine Sense injured them.
• He Pingsheng learned that the three had come looking for treasure, gave them low-grade Magical Treasures, and sent them away.
• He Pingsheng asked Jinku about his curse, and Jinku confirmed that its power had completely vanished after three hundred years.
• He Pingsheng and Jinku each feared what the other might do if Jinku left He Pingsheng’s Sea of Consciousness, so neither dared to act.

After centuries of seclusion, He Pingsheng reached the Mahayana Emperor Realm Sixth Layer and prepared to resurrect Zhou Qingmei. At the Nine Hells Abyss, Ming Yue gave him a Buddha Flame Pearl for the journey into the Underworld, then broke through his cultivation bottleneck.

• He Pingsheng spent centuries comprehending Temporal Daoist Law, wore away the curse inside him, and advanced to the Mahayana Emperor Realm Sixth Layer.
• He Pingsheng and Jinku agreed to continue their uneasy symbiotic arrangement, and Jinku confirmed he could perform the spell to resurrect Zhou Qingmei if He Pingsheng found a place of yin and baleful energy.
• He Pingsheng traveled to the Nine Hells Abyss in the Celestial Roc Emperor Domain and encountered Ming Yue, now a Buddha Emperor at the Mahayana Emperor Realm Eleventh Layer.
• Ming Yue gave He Pingsheng a Buddha Flame Pearl to conceal his movements in the Underworld and temporarily hold Zhou Qingmei's soul.
• Ming Yue stepped into the sky, broke through his bottleneck, and advanced beyond the Mahayana Emperor Realm Eleventh Layer.

He Pingsheng and Jinku descended into the Nine Hells Abyss to enter the Underworld and retrieve Zhou Qingmei’s soul. They followed a branch of the Yellow Springs beyond the Spirit Realm, but had not yet reached the Underworld.

• He Pingsheng wondered how Ming Yue knew about his plan, then put away the Buddha Flame Pearl and plunged into the Nine Hells Abyss.
• At the abyss’s bottom, Jinku insisted He Pingsheng accompany him into the Underworld, and He Pingsheng agreed despite the danger.
• He Pingsheng and Jinku cast the Six Paths Soul-Stealing Art and opened a path to the Yellow Springs.
• Jinku explained that the Yellow Springs connected worlds and told He Pingsheng to travel upstream before the passage closed.
• He Pingsheng crossed out of the Spirit Realm into empty space, and Jinku said they still had to travel farther to reach the Underworld.

He Pingsheng and Jinku crossed into the Underworld, where they encountered Zhao Xiangdu, now a river-patrolling ghost officer. After capturing and questioning him, He Pingsheng learned why Zhao Xiangdu served the Underworld and how its ghost officers handled souls and intruders.

• He Pingsheng noticed that the Underworld’s laws differed subtly from those of the Spirit Realm and learned from Jinku that they were of a higher level.
• Jinku recognized a black boat as belonging to a river-patrolling ghost officer, and He Pingsheng discovered that the officer was Zhao Xiangdu.
• When Zhao Xiangdu tried to flee, He Pingsheng caught him with the Yellow Springs Soul-Seizing Chain and tormented him with fire and lightning.
• Zhao Xiangdu explained that he had avoided the Eighteen-Layer Hell by agreeing never to reincarnate and patrol the Yellow Springs forever.
• Zhao Xiangdu told He Pingsheng that river officers guided wandering souls and reported powerful intruders to Ox-Head and Horse-Face, whose lowest-ranking members were Human Immortals.